"Sissoko was doing a fantastic job" - Rafa

[El Jefecito]

Mista was a Rafa signing. He played for Rafa in division 2. Sissoko was not. Sissoko was an eduardo macia signing when he was in charge of the academy there. He was bought in as a striker and converted to a midfielder by Rafa.

I suspected AFII might have been talking BS.

[Zapater]

Eduardo Macia was the name I was looking for. Llorente was the one that bought Rafa the "lamp" Cannobio.

Oh yeah, a fun fact I know one of Sissoko's million brothers play for Valencia youth atm

I saw a pic of him on the net running around in one of their blue training shirts the other day.

[peekay]

Eduardo Macia was the name I was looking for. Llorente was the one that bought Rafa the "lamp" Cannobio.

Oh yeah, a fun fact I know one of Sissoko's million brothers play for Valencia youth atm

I saw a pic of him on the net running around in one of their blue training shirts the other day.

Just some more piece of information. Mista played for Rafa in Madrid youth setup and Tenerife. When Rafa joined Valencia he wanted three players from Tenerife: Mista, Curro Torres and Luis Garcia. However, Garcia went to Barcelona.

The strikers he wanted at that time were Samuel Eto'o, David Villa ( who played for a second division team) and Mista. All three of them unknown at that time. Also he sanctioned the sale of fan favorite Killy Gonzales and introduced a promising youngster : Vicente Rodriguez in his place.

Just some info for idiots who think Rafa does not know how to sign attacking players.

[Guest]

People are over analyzing and over analyzing and over analyzing things. You should all chill out. Momo was fantastic for us for 1 1/2 seasons. He's just lost confidence, for one reason or another and Rafa is trying to help him by backing him 100%.

It was the same for Wayne Rooney when Fergie backed him during his ****e spell and bang, he was back on form ! Momo is a fantastic player, who gives the ball away yes, because of sloppiness, not because of a flaw in his make up. He isn't a pass master either, that's not his role.

[Los Rojos]

People are over analyzing and over analyzing and over analyzing things. You should all chill out. Momo was fantastic for us for 1 1/2 seasons. He's just lost confidence, for one reason or another and Rafa is trying to help him by backing him 100%.

It was the same for Wayne Rooney when Fergie backed him during his ****e spell and bang, he was back on form ! Momo is a fantastic player, who gives the ball away yes, because of sloppiness, not because of a flaw in his make up. He isn't a pass master either, that's not his role.

You make some fair points there Fredo. Momo was a good player for us in his first season until he got injured in Benfica, in fact he was keeping Alonso Gerrard out of the CM slots for a time whilst he was on top form.

Since he came back from that eye injury, he hasn't been the same player (perhaps unsurprisingly considering the nature and seriousness of the injury) and needless to say the dislocated shoulder injury against Birmingham last season hasn't helped.

Barcelona away excepted, I think he's been average to poor since playing in Benfica in 2006.

I'm sure if he got his confidence back, he would be a decent squad player, ideal for tactical specific games such as a Barca away game. I just don't think we're going to win the Premiership with a Momo Sissoko consistently in our side.

Regarding ManUre and Ginsoak's support for Rooney, I see similarities between Rafa's support for Momo against Ferguson's misplaced support for Kleberson, a player he finally gave up on despite calling him at one time, the player that won the World Cup for Brazil in 2002.

[dww]

You make some fair points there Fredo. Momo was a good player for us in his first season until he got injured in Benfica, in fact he was keeping Alonso Gerrard out of the CM slots for a time whilst he was on top form.

Since he came back from that eye injury, he hasn't been the same player (perhaps unsurprisingly considering the nature and seriousness of the injury) and needless to say the dislocated shoulder injury against Birmingham last season hasn't helped.

Barcelona away excepted, I think he's been average to poor since playing in Benfica in 2006.

I'm sure if he got his confidence back, he would be a decent squad player, ideal for tactical specific games such as a Barca away game. I just don't think we're going to win the Premiership with a Momo Sissoko consistently in our side.

Regarding ManUre and Ginsoak's support for Rooney, I see similarities between Rafa's support for Momo against Ferguson's misplaced support for Kleberson, a player he finally gave up on despite calling him at one time, the player that won the World Cup for Brazil in 2002.

I actually think there was a period post the eye injury when his passing improved - he seemed to take more time and play it more simply.

I think that part of Rafa's support for Momo is due to the fact we don't have a lot of options at the minute - Gerrard has lost form in the middle and our wide players look out of sorts (and some would say are lacking in quality) - so Gerrard in a wide or free role looks the best option. So we need two CMs and Lucas is young and needs to be eased into the team. Having said that I also think he is nowhere near as bad as some make out.

This season I think he has been (on average) about as good as Mascherano. I know that Mascher played better last year and obviously has world class potential but I don't think he is performing to his level right now and his poor passing from deep cost us as much as Momos does slightly further up the pitch if not more so.

Momo makes some glaring errors and his passing is a problem, but he did some good work on Saturday which has gone completely unaknowledged on here. His running and movement was good and he put a couple of really nice through balls up to the forwards. I think he deserves at least until January to show whether he can regain his former standards or improve upon them.

[Los Rojos]

Good post D

I actually think there was a period post the eye injury when his passing improved - he seemed to take more time and play it more simply.

From what I can remember, he came back into a side that won 11 out of their last 12 PL games I think and were playing some great football. I think confidence and trust is infectious in a football team when results are going your way so this must have helped Momo. I really think he's a confidence player and this is perhaps why he's struggling now and wants to leave.

I think that part of Rafa's support for Momo is due to the fact we don't have a lot of options at the minute - Gerrard has lost form in the middle and our wide players look out of sorts (and some would say are lacking in quality) - so Gerrard in a wide or free role looks the best option. So we need two CMs and Lucas is young and needs to be eased into the team. Having said that I also think he is nowhere near as bad as some make out.

Perhaps this is the case but I don't see the problem with giving Lucas a run in the side at Momo's expense. He looks a really confident lad and I think he'd cope quite well.

This season I think he has been (on average) about as good as Mascherano. I know that Mascher played better last year and obviously has world class potential but I don't think he is performing to his level right now and his poor passing from deep cost us as much as Momos does slightly further up the pitch if not more so.

I've noticed that you've posted about Macherano's form a couple of times. I don't see him playing as badly as you perhaps do but agree that some of his passing can be a little wayward.

Momo makes some glaring errors and his passing is a problem, but he did some good work on Saturday which has gone completely unaknowledged on here. His running and movement was good and he put a couple of really nice through balls up to the forwards. I think he deserves at least until January to show whether he can regain his former standards or improve upon them.

Well he's stuck with us until January and we've got support the lad whenever he's wearing a Liverpool shirt.

[Guest]

Well he's stuck with us until January and we've got support the lad whenever he's wearing a Liverpool shirt.

Well, that's the gist of it mate. Well said.

[dww]

The Mascher thing is in large part a reaction to the stick Momo gets. I don't think he has been horrendous, but I think that he gets an easy ride off everyone else. I'm not convinced that either he or Momo have been individually as bad as people have attacked Momo for, we have lakced cohesion as a team and I still think the biggest failing is that out attacking quartet (whoever is in it in a given match) have not put together a 90 minutes of good movement and passing since the first international break of the season.

[desertscouser]

Tell me why we should support a player who has just been quoted as saying he regrets not leaving LFC for Juve a couple of months ago?

[kewellnthegang]

nothin to say i just want to be 100th to reply

[dww]

Tell me why we should support a player who has just been quoted as saying he regrets not leaving LFC for Juve a couple of months ago?

Largely because he is playing in our team.

It is fair enough to have personal regrest as long as you give your all on the pitch. He hasn't been in great form but I think it would be grossly unfair to accuse him of not trying.

[desertscouser]

Largely because he is playing in our team.

It is fair enough to have personal regrest as long as you give your all on the pitch. He hasn't been in great form but I think it would be grossly unfair to accuse him of not trying.

He's playing in our team because he's contracted to do so. Yet he publicly says he'd rather be playing elsewhere whilst his performances continue to be appalling. Is there any correlation?

He's not the sort of LFC player I want to support

[dww]

He's playing in our team because he's contracted to do so. Yet he publicly says he'd rather be playing elsewhere whilst his performances continue to be appalling. Is there any correlation?

He's not the sort of LFC player I want to support

Fair enough, but I think it is reasonable to say that he is in the team because Rafa wants him there - if he felt that he wanted away and this was affecting his performance then he wouldn't be. I don't think he has been worse than many other of our players TBH.

[kewellnthegang]

He's playing in our team because he's contracted to do so. Yet he publicly says he'd rather be playing elsewhere whilst his performances continue to be appalling. Is there any correlation?

He's not the sort of LFC player I want to support

slag em on here if ya want fella but not at the collesium eh